After maintaining secrecy over the detention of former Principal of BRD Medical College at Gorakhpur, Dr Rajiv Mishra and his wife Purnima Shukla, the UP Police confirmed of their arrest late on Tuesday evening. Mishra, his wife and five others were booked for the death of 70 children in 48 hours at the college hospital due to alleged shortage of oxygen recently.
The husband-wife duo was picked up by sleuths of Special Task Force (STF) from the house of a lawyer at Kanpur early Tuesday morning and later subjected to quizzing in connection with the tragic incidnt before being handed over to Gorakhpur Police for probe.
``Sleuths of the STF arrested Rajeev Mishra and his wife Purnima Shukla and handed over them to Gorakhpur Police,”, confirmed IG (Public Grievances) PC Meena addressing media persons in lucknow on Tuesday evening but refused to provide further details.
Sources claimed that the STF raided a house of a prominent lawyer of Kanpur early Tuesday morning and arrested teh couple. Mishra had earlier been suspended as Principal of the BRD medcial college on August 12 after the deaths were reported and he resigned the same day.
After the Chief Secretary submitted a probe report and indicted Mishra and his wife along with seven others, an FIR was lodged by the state government at Hazratganj police station which was later handed over to Gorakhpur Police.
Proprietors of M/s Pushpa Sales, the company enstrusted with the supply of liquid oxygen, has also been named in the FIR along with Dr Rajeev Mishra, his wife Purnima Shukla, Dr Kafeel, Chief Pharmacist Gajanand, Head of Anesthesia department Dr Satish, Manish Bhandari, Udai Pratap Sharma, Sanjay Kumar Tripathi and Sudhir Kumar Pandey. Circle Officer of Cantt in Gorakhpur is investigating the case.
An STF official engaged with the arrest claimed that the couple was quizzed before being handed to the Gorakhpur Police but failed to extract any vital input.
Sources said that a separate STF team raided the house and nursing home of another accused Dr Kafeel in Gorakhpur on Tuesday morning but failed to nab him as he is reported to have slipped to Nepal fearing arrest.
Kafeel, who was also suspended, had uploaded a video to prove that he had done his job yet the government was harassing him.